LSJ GDOS (FY24-00161) - Redacted.pdf

Limited-Sources Justification (LSJ) For orders or BPAs exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold

- 1 - LSJ No: FY24-00161

LSJ No.: FY24-00161

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program, 41 U.S.C. 152(3), Competitive Procedures, and 40 U.S.C. 501, Services for Executive Agencies.

1. Agency and Contracting Activity. Identification of the agency, contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Limited-Sources Justification.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Procurement Operations (OPO), Information Technology Acquistion Center (ITAC) proposes to award an order pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(a), Limiting Sources.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. Describe the action being approved and include the name and address of the proposed contractor(s).

DHS/OPO intends to limit the number of sources solicited pursuant to FAR Part 8.405- 6(a) for the procurement of services to provide geospatial data management expertise and training and outreach support to the DHS Geospatial Management Office (GMO) in support of the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE). The proposed contractor is Integrity Management Consulting, Inc., 3975 University Drive, Suite 310, Fairfax, VA 22030- 2520.

3. Description of Supplies/Services. Describe the supplies or services to be acquired. Provide the estimated total value (including options, if any).

The overarching requirement is to:

• Provide geospatial data management expertise, training, and outreach support to the DHS GMO in support of the HSE.

• Integrate geospatial expertise and customer relationship management best practices in support of DHS mission partners’ geospatial and visualization objectives based on knowledge of stakeholder needs and operational constraints.

• Apply geospatial expertise to help modernize and improve operational geospatial capabilities, data management functions, and related day-to-day business processes.

• Support DHS GMO staff and partners in the implementation of federal policies and directives, including the Geospatial Data Act of 2018.

• Support efforts to expand and improve DHS geospatial data discovery including, but not limited to data acquisition, data management, metadata, data discoverability tools, and web resource development/implementation.

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• Support data management and governance development and implementation for incident-based geospatial datasets.

• Provide the DHS GMO program and data management expertise to facilitate internal and external geospatial data coordination in support of the HSE Security Enterprise including, Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (FSLTT) stakeholders and including but not limited to, the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation Level Data Working Group (HIFLD).

• Provide support for the strategic development, implementation, and maintenance of the Geospatial Concept of Operations body of knowledge, Standard Operating Procedures, and related documentation. Improve the communications strategy across multiple platforms with data-based approaches (i.e., metrics, user feedback, Quality Assurance testing results, etc.) and best practices to reach a dynamic and growing, mission-oriented user base.

The independent government cost estimate (IGCE) is . The period of performance for this order is a 12-month base period of performance and a three month and 24 day option period.

Period of Performance Total Price Base Period Option period

4. Authority and supporting rationale.

This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program, 41 U.S.C. 152(3), Competitive Procedures, and 40 U.S.C. 501, Services for Executive Agencies, in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a), Limiting Sources. A task order will be awarded in the interest of economy and efficiency as a logical follow-on to blanket purchase agreement (BPA) order 70RTAC21FC0000004 pursuant to FAR 8.405- 6(a)(1)(i)(C). The original order expires June 3, 2024; it was competitively solicited and awarded using the ordering procedures under FAR 8.405-3, under DHS BPA 70RTAC19A00000013 which expires September 29, 2024. It is necessary to establish a new BPA order for the work described herein as a logical follow-on because it will allow for continued services while the requirement is re-competed under the new multiple-award Geospatial Technical Support Services (GTSS) 3.0 BPA when it is established in Fall 2024.

This logical follow-on for this 12-month base period of performance and a three-month and 24 day option period award is imperative as to not disrupt the operations, maintenance and publishing of geospatial data which are used across the HSE (i.e.

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FSLTT and all DHS Partners) mission essential operations. Those mission essential operations include the following mission needs:

• Emergency management of natural and man-made disasters,

• Planning for National Security Special Events, Special Event Assessment Rating events,

• Support of border security, immigration and customs enforcement, maritime security, other law enforcement missions, and

• Critical infrastructure protection for location-based situational awareness across the HSE, that rely on geospatial data, technology, and applications to meet their objectives.

Disruption of this critical in-progress work would have a negative impact on the HSE supporting their missions by delaying access to critical information and mapping capabilities. Given the urgency of critical timelines, the proposed logical follow-on award is necessary to expedite dataset management.

Integrity Management Consulting, Inc. possesses the institutional knowledge of data set management, on-going operations, supporting the management and publishing of the HIFLD catalogs. It has subject matter experts on staff with the current knowledge and security clearances to perform these services. Under the current circumstances and the short time period, there is no reasonable expectation that the other sources have the time or the experience and understanding of the HSE’s wide customer base with the multiple and diverse requirements to immediately fulfill the Government’s needs. A new vendor would require six (6) months to one year to ramp up its knowledge and skillset to provide the continuous services of the Government’s requirements and would not be able to start working in the midst of on-going operations. Ramp up activities would include:

• Onboarding,

• Orientation to outreach processes and communication systems for more than 4,000 self-registered stakeholders and the HIFLD Subcommittee which includes representation from interagency and industry partners,

• Access and orientation to two (2) complex Operating Platforms, and

• Training to conduct daily maintenance of:

o over 500 data layers for the HIFLD Open data repository and o over 430 data layers for the HIFLD Secure (e.g., 79 For Official Use

Only data layers and 125 licensed datasets) data repository.

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Time to prepare for this effort would be significant and have a direct impact on the delivery of these critical datasets. Critical in-progress activities that would be impacted by a change in contractor include:

• establishing standard operating procedures for the HIFLD Program newly transferred from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to DHS,

• publishing of updated and new datasets some of which are from 2019 or older,

• establishing and executing quality assurance and quality control reviews,

• executing coordination timelines with approximately 70 interagency and commercial data providers, and, Any prolonged break in service will potentially jeopardize the continuous services the current contractor provides which would introduce unnecessary and unacceptable planning and operational risk to the various missions across the HSE. Furthermore, the DHS Headquarters Entry on Duty (EOD) process to adjudicate access to DHS systems and facilities can take between 30 to 180 days depending on the clearance level. The long lead time involved with bringing on new resources poses significant risks to the program’s ability to provide up-to-date geographic critical infrastructure data to mission critical programs across the HSE.

After conducting a thorough cost analysis, it has been determined that the expenses associated with soliciting and evaluating multiple vendors outweigh the potential savings of over , making a direct award the most cost-effective option. The GMO has reduced the use of optional contract line item numbers for this action to ensure only the most critical needs of the HSE are supported until these tasks are complete.

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the anticipated order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

The Contracting Officer has determined that awarding the proposed task order to Integrity Management Consulting, Inc. represents the best value to the Government and the expected costs will be fair and reasonable based on the vendor’s General Services Administration (GSA) contract. This order will be placed in accordance with FAR 8.404, “Use of Federal Supply Schedules.” The GSA has already negotiated fair and reasonable prices for the services on the vendor’s GSA schedule contract. Discounts to the GSA schedule rates will be requested. Additionally, the level of effort and the mix of labor proposed to perform the specific tasks being ordered will be considered in order to determine the total price is reasonable. The contractor’s labor mix and level of effort will also be compared to the IGCE.

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

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Market research was conducted among GSA schedule contract holders providing similar services. Based on past experience, it was determined that there is no reasonable expectation that other sources would be able to quickly ramp up (e.g., completing the EOD process and understanding GMO customer base requirements) to effectively provide the services in a short period of time. Furthermore, these schedule holders do not have the specialized experience required to provide these services.

7. Any other facts supporting the limited-sources justification. Additional facts may be stated in this section. If there are no additional facts, you must state that here.

There are no additional facts.

8. A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration (i.e., limited-sources) before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

Future acquisitions for these services will be competed under the multiple-award GTSS

3.0 BPA that is currently in the planning stage.

9. DHS intends to post this requirement on the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(a)(2)(i).